What Are Specialist Cycling Shoes For?

Gone are the days where you would tuck your jeans in your socks and ride your bike in any old footwear that you felt comfortable in. Today you would be laughed at and while for the guy who rides his bike to and from work the above may be acceptable, in the modern World you need modern footwear and that means specialist cycling shoes of one form or another.

It depends what sort of cycling you do as to what type of cycling shoe you will choose as there are one or two different styles and types to compare. There are a few key features depending on how seriously you take your cycling. You may want to choose a more rigid cycling shoe if you want to get power to the pedals and therefore the wheels as efficiently as possible. However, you probably have to compromise in the area of off-cycle flexibility if you go for a really rigid shoe. Modern cycling shoes also enable rigid attachment to the pedals meaning that they have various cleats etc on the bottom of the shoe.

If you are into road racing then you will find that they tend to be quite rigid and are not really suitable for walking in as the cleats protrude from the the shoe to allow secure attachment to the pedal.

If you are looking for something a little more practical then maybe a touring shoe would work as these tend to have treads (where a road racing shoe does not) and the cleat for attachment to the pedal is recessed making them much easier to walk in.

Mountain bike shoes also have a recessed cleat to enable walking and they also tend to have studs in the sole to aid the rider when they have to dismount and negotiate obstacles.

Of course if you still want to wear your normal shoes you can still get the traditional toe clip and strap setup which attaches to the pedal so that you can slip you shoe in and out of the clips quite easily. If you are a more serious rider though you will want to make sure that your foot can't slip out of the clips. This means that you will have to bend down and manually adjust the straps to get your foot in and out. For the serious rider this is a major inconvenience and is the main reason why these systems have been replaced by clipless pedals.

Finally you may find that overshoes are a really useful piece of kit to have available. These are simply shoe coverings that are for use in wet weather as they are waterproof. They tend to have a hole in the bottom to allow your cleats to protrude so you can still attach to the pedals. They also tend to be made of fairly lightweight fabric so they're not really designed for walking on as they would wear out fairly quickly.